Race and schools

Unequal: the sequel

The Supreme Court looks again at race in schools

AMERICA'S public schools are unfair. Their quality varies widely and many are lousy, so some unlucky kids get a shoddy education. Rich children live in areas with more property taxes, more education spending and better schools. They also tend to be white. So is it fair to keep some white children out of good schools, and give black children their places?

That incendiary question is among those at the heart of two cases the Supreme Court heard on December 4th. In two districts that deliberately balance each school's racial mix (Jefferson County, Kentucky and Seattle, Washington) some white children complain that, because of their skin colour, they cannot get a fair shot at admission into the public schools they want. Both sides claim to have on their side the constitution's 14th amendment, which was ratified after slavery ended, and grants everyone equal protection under the law.

The Supreme Court has long struggled to apply that principle to public education. In a unanimous 1954 decision, Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, it ruled that racially separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. It has since issued several other rulings to clarify the Brown precedent and to make school districts dismantle the machinery of segregation—often by busing black and white children to distant schools. Five decades after the decision hundreds of school districts remain under federal court supervision, until they can convince judges that they are fully desegregated.

Thousands of other districts, however, can run schools broadly as they wish, either because they were never deemed to be segregated or because they have reformed to the courts' satisfaction. It is these districts that are now creating the trickiest legal battles. Largely free to do what they want, many take active steps to create and maintain racially-mixed schools. That is not easy. Although deliberate segregation is no longer an issue, demographic trends and white flight to rich suburbs keep pushing in the direction of a de facto segregation of schools. Officials who want lots of integration can only achieve it, in many cases, with a strong hand and a blatantly colour-conscious mind.

From 1975 to 2000, for example, the Jefferson County school district remained under a court order to desegregate. But after it finished the job, and was freed from court supervision, the district still wanted to ensure racial integration in schools. It does so by insisting that 15-50% of each school's students be black. Although Seattle never segregated its schools, it also takes active steps to balance schools racially. Students can apply to attend any high school in the district, for example, but since the best schools are oversubscribed it rations openings by race.

Other districts across the country have similar schemes. Some (white) parents complain that this discriminates against their children, and is therefore unfair. But they are a minority. The idea of diversity is popular among many black, white and other Americans; and integration schemes often have local voters' support. The Supreme Court's nine voters, however, seem divided. They will announce their ruling in the spring.